Savor (28 page)

basis. I thought my head would explode from the confusion.

“Do you want some coffee?” Luka stretched the entire length of him then pushed off the

couch.

“What?” I sounded like an idiot.

“Coffee? I’m ordering a pot for myself.” He sauntered to the desk and picked up the askew

phone that didn’t quite land on its cradle when I’d dropped it earlier.

“Shouldn’t you be happy about the band’s latest achievement?” I really wanted to know

despite the breathy way the question came out.

He punched in the number for the kitchen. “Can we get two pots of coffee with the works

over at Dakota’s room? Yeah. That too.” Then he ended the call and stared at my face. “Poison

is a personal song for me. It’s out there because I wanted to express myself. So what if people like it? I could care less if no one bought it so long as I was able to get it out there.”

Huh. An artist true to his craft. From the conviction in Luka’s tone, I saw his point. To him

it didn’t matter if he was successful or not so long as he got to do what he wanted. He was a

man after my own heart. A scary, scary thought.

I pushed my chair back so I could get away from his drugging scent and think clearly. “Can

you make Yana’s life a little easier? She’s only looking out for what’s best for the band.”

Luka’s eyebrows came together. “Do you want me to take the interview?”

I heard the challenge in his voice. “It’s not up to me.”

“But do you want me to take the interview?”

“You shouldn’t do anything because someone else wants you to do it.”

“Then what do you mean by making Yana’s life easier? Taking the interview would do that,

wouldn’t it?”

Okay, even I knew I didn’t make sense, but I wasn’t about to show Luka that. “If you don’t

know what’s good for you then I have nothing more to add.”

He leaned down until his hands wrapped around the armrests of my chair, corralling me

in. “Oh, I know what’s good for me. The question is, do you?”

I hated the answer that popped up in my head. Why did every other thing that left Luka’s

mouth sound naughty, dirty, or naughty and dirty? Of course I knew, and it didn’t help that

he caught me on it. The spark in his eyes said so. But Luka got the last bit wrong. The

question wasn’t if I knew what was good for me…it was did I have the balls to actually claim

it?

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Undercurrent

I’d just fallen asleep when an icy sensation woke me in slow degrees. The cold emanated

from my breast, of all places. It swirled around my nipple, causing it to pucker painfully. Then something hot and wet replaced the cold and I arched up involuntarily.

In the darkness behind my eyelids, scenes from my nightmares flashed like multiple

screens turned on at once. My breathing grew shallow and quick. The air I inhaled wasn’t

enough to ease the burning in my lungs. I needed more. Much more.

Again the sudden ice prick came, now tormenting my other breast. I groaned, rolling to my

side in an attempt to get away from it. Resistance kept me in place. I pulled, but something

prevented my arm from leaving its position above my head. My consciousness fought out of

the heaviness of sleep. I opened my eye and turned my head toward my arm. A silk tie

wrapped around my wrist, the other end attached to the bed post. I whipped my head to my

other side. Even with my blind spot, I knew my other arm resembled the one I
could
see.

Panting, I yanked at my legs. They wouldn’t budge either. The same silk held them in place

at the ankles, spreading my legs apart. Like crawling spiders, panic climbed up my throat.

“Shit! Fuck!” I continued to yank at my restraints. “Shit! Shit!” Each curse a breath I

couldn’t afford to lose. My stomach twisted, flushing bile into my mouth. I swallowed. I had

to keep my throat clear if I wanted to scream for help.

Someone sucked on my nipple. I forced my senses to focus despite their rapid fraying.

Blond curls met my dropped gaze. Luka released my breast with an audible pop and looked up

at me with a mischievous grin. He winked as if everything was okay.

“Luka!” Each inhalation got shallower, more ragged. “What the fuck are you doing?”

He tilted his head as if I spoke a different language. The move caused his cheek to graze

my already sensitive nipple. “Since you gave me such a wonderful wakeup call yesterday, I

thought I’d repay you in kind.”

Swallowing another wave of acid, I forced myself to say, “Luka, you have to let me go.” The

shadows of my dreams danced in the back of my head. The way the man held me down. The

cold knife slicing into my skin. All that blood. A metal band wrapped around my lungs and

tightened.

“Why?”

I shook my head. “You don’t understand. You have to let me go, right now!”

He shook his head too. “I don’t think so.”

“No!” I whimpered. Panic squeezed my heart like an orange. “Please, please, Luka. Untie

me. You don’t understand.” I kept repeating the same words over and over, pleading more

and more with him. A cold sweat coated my entire body. Luka didn’t seem to understand the

pain slowly sucking me in.

Ignoring my pleas, Luka pushed off then straddled me like I did to him yesterday morning.

Something in me snapped. His move set off a chain reaction of screams and thrashing. I

whipped my head from side to side, twisting my body in an attempt to get him off me. Luka’s

eyes grew wide. He fought to untie me, holding me down which brought on more bouts of

screaming. As I got lightheaded from the panic blocking much needed air from entering my

lungs, Luka managed to reach for the ties on my arms then on my legs.

Once freed, I pushed him off me and rolled off the bed. I heard a thump, but I didn’t look

back to check what caused it. I ran for the terrace doors, yanked them open, and rushed into

the gray morning light. I took the terrace steps two at a time. Snow fell, its flakes melting the second they touched my overheated skin.

I couldn’t breathe, but I kept running. My hands clawed at the empty air like I swam for

shore. My bare feet hardly felt the grass and snow crushing beneath my weight.

“Dakota!”

Like a whip cracked, I veered sharply into a stand of trees and picked up my pace. If I could

run, I would live. I saw my breath in front of me. For every step I took, heavy footfalls

followed. They grew closer. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t.

My hair struck my face like mini-slaps when I dodged trees. Shivers rolled through my

body. I ignored the low hanging branches and bushes scraping my bare arms and legs. The

sting gave me much needed strength to keep going. The footsteps chasing after me didn’t

relent no matter how fast I went.

“Dakota, stop!” A hand touched my shoulder. I screamed and pushed forward. Closing

fingers scratched down my back.

The saliva in my mouth had since dried from my heavy breathing. My throat felt like a

husk opening and closing with the cold air that entered and the hot breath that escaped. I

didn’t think to swallow. At this point, I couldn’t.

“Dakota, please!”

I stumbled at the recognition the desperate plea brought. Falling to my knees, I wrapped

my arms around myself and screamed. I screamed and screamed until I thought I couldn’t

any more. The harrowing shrieks shook my already quaking body.

Strong arms wrapped around me from behind. Like a wild animal, I fought back with all

my strength—punching, kicking, and scratching.

“Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!”

The arms didn’t relent. Grunts answered each blow that struck true. Whoever held me

pulled my body back against a solid, heaving chest. I continued the barrage of fists and kicks.

I bit down on the arm across the tops of my breasts. I drew blood, tasting its copper in my dry mouth. Still he didn’t let go.

He continued to hold me until my screams turned into sobs. I tilted my face up toward the

falling snow and wept. Breath stealing howls ravaged my taxed lungs. I clawed at the arms

around me, unable to articulate my pleas for release. The body behind me rocked back and

forth. Warm lips touched my ear, whispering words I couldn’t hear. Fat tears rolled down my

sweat drenched face. Still I cried out.

The legs covered in cotton sweats I sat between wrapped around my seated form, pushing

my knees further against my chest. He corralled me in human limbs. I moved my fingers

from his arms to his thighs, digging my nails in. He grunted. Dots of blood rose from beneath

the cotton. Still I scored his flesh. The pain in me grew so great I needed to inflict the same pain on someone else just to find ease.

The rocking continued. My ass grew numb and wet from the melted snow. The heat from

the bare chest against my back didn’t help chase the flash freeze happening inside my body.

For the first time since I fell, I shut my mouth and swallowed. It hurt like a punch in the face.

Tears continued to fall.

“I’m sorry, Dakota,” he whispered. He leaned the side of his head against mine as my sobs

receded like the tide. “I’m so, so sorry.”

I focused on getting air into my lungs. A prickling sensation surfaced inside my chest. My

heart beat so hard, I heard it in my ears.

In stages, my consciousness returned to my mind. The dreams crawled back to the

darkness, leaving me exhausted. My shoulders slumped, taking my entire upper half with

them. If it weren’t for the muscular bands of flesh securing me in place, I would have fallen

forward on my face.

“Dakota?”

I finally recognized the voice as Luka’s. The accent entered the rational part of my brain. I

reached up for his hands and disentangled them from my body. When he refused to let go, I

growled. He released me. I shoved his legs apart then pushed off the damp ground. Snow kept

falling around us, coating the forest in pure white.

Standing on sore feet, I assessed the rest of my body. I wore nothing but the black panties

I’d put on last night. Exposed both inside and out, I covered my breasts by hugging myself.

My breathing still came too fast for me to settle. I needed a scalding shower to get rid of how dirty and violated I felt inside.

“What happened?”

I looked down at Luka and narrowed my gaze at his confusion. “I want you to get all your

shit out of my room and never come back.” My voice came out hoarsely, like I was battling an

ugly case of sore throat.

“Dakota, what did I do? What happened?”

“You tied me to the bed, you asshole!” I growled at him through the pain lining the walls

of my throat. The muscles constricted, choking my attempts at gulping air.

“I don’t understand.” Fear sparked in his clear blue eyes. He continued to sit in the snow

in just sweat pants, legs spread apart, arms on his knees. I would have found him handsome

if not for the despicable thing he’d done. “All I wanted was to pleasure you. Hear you moan

my name.”

“Well, it backfired on you, didn’t it?” My words rang feral to my ears. I didn’t care. I would have kicked him if I had the strength.

“No shit.” He ran a frustrated hand through his curls. They bounced back in place. “In the

SUV, when you were moaning in your sleep. You were dreaming of something.”

“Now’s not the time to remind me of that.” I stomped away, unable to stare at him any

longer. The cuts on his arms and legs freaked me out. I’d inflicted those. Me. In a moment of

pure insanity, I hurt someone else other than myself. Granted, he deserved every scratch.

What kind of a guy ties you up in your sleep and thinks it’s a turn on? Kinky bastard! I

shoved away the fact that Luka’s actions triggered my dreams. I would deal with the fallout

later.

“Dakota!” Luka called after me. “Wait!”

The crunch of snow from behind said Luka stood up and trailed after me. I gripped my

arms tighter around my violently shivering body. The cold on the outside matched my insides

now. Shower then coffee. Yes, I needed to anchor myself in the moment. If I didn’t, I had no

idea what would happen. One thing was for sure, it scared the shit out of me to lose control

again.

“Will you wait!” Luka grabbed my shoulder.

I whirled around and my hand flew out. He dodged back, but not far enough that my

fingernails left shallow tracks down his cheek.

“Don’t touch me!” I hissed through my teeth.

“I just want to understand what happened,” he insisted, hurt in the tightening of the skin

around his eyes.

“Yeah?” I stomped toward him. He had the good sense to move back. “You want to

understand? Well, get in line because even
I
don’t understand what happened.” The words poured out of me like poison. “I get these dreams. I don’t know what they’re about or where

they come from. All I know is they terrify the shit out of me. So imagine what happens when

I wake up tied to a bed with a guy I barely even know sexually harassing me?”

“I wasn’t sexually harassing you,” Luka said, indignation in his tone.

“What? You think what you were doing was okay?” I challenged back. “I may be sexually

attracted to you but that doesn’t give you the right to attempt to rape me.”

“Then what do you call what you did to me yesterday morning?”

I had no response to that. Of course my actions came back to bite me in the ass. In a self-

conscious move, I reached up for my patch. Instead of hard velvet, my fingertips touched

jagged scar tissue. My breath caught.